Hi everyone!

This past month has literally just been uni focused and I'm finally glad to see an end to it all! Sitting here writing this now, I have successfully looked around my choices of where I want to go, found out what I need to get in order to study there and sent off the dreaded UCAS application and I'm now waiting on what happens next (I seriously don't even know what that next bit is!)

So yes, everything has finally come together but I can tell you it probably could've been a much easier process - if I understood what I was doing...

So this post is probably going to be a rant along with tips as well from my personal experience of the whole university application process.

Firstly, if you're planning to do a gap year because you can't be bothered with the stress of applying on your last year of college (that was my initial plan) don't. Do it the year you would meant to do it as you'll be able to have easier access to teachers and people to help you out rather than stuck out there on your own not knowing how to apply! I've had so much help thanks to my progress coach and I really would be so lost if I didn't apply and did it all next year!

Secondly, when there's a deadline - do it as soon as possible because the stress of having to get it done will mean one or two things:

• everything will be rushed and look rubbish
• you will be stressed
• when it's done it's done

Manually putting in results to apply for college was long enough, this time doing it for university just seemed even longer! Note: if you get into college with one grade and then get it remarked, make sure you change that result with your college as soon as - something that I didn't do and had to go through the process of changing it all so my applications both lined up! 

Also, after your first year at college - make sure you collect your certificates (if possible) on results day - again a rookie error that I didn't do and that made the process longer!

Another thing that I've noticed is that BTEC courses are probably better to do nowadays for uni applications than taking actual A levels. The general consensus for BTEC is that it is for people who can't cope with exams, didn't do well in GCSE etcetc. I'm taking a BTEC diploma and granted, I have thought exactly the same things about taking it! But the ironic thing is - the UCAS points needed are a lot easier to get at diploma than it is A level. Thats one thing that I think is bad that BTEC is given so much stick for being for "underachievers" by some people - when in reality your points work out better anyways!

(For example: DDM (distinction distinction merit) is 320 points which is ABB(?) in A level results - that sounds tough to me!)

Personal statement sounded like a daunting task when it was set. Having to write about yourself and make yourself sound fabulous is quite a hard thing to do! Which is ironic, when you know so much about yourself, but don't want to come across sounding too "arsey". The truth of the matter is, beginning the personal statement is probably the most challenging bit. Then actually fitting in everything you've done in 47 lines is the next tricky bit. 

Once you get a flow, you can't seem to stop - my tip would be to write so much by going over the limit ands then remove the irrelevant stuff at the end to see what you do and don't need. Also, get more than 2 pairs of eyes reading it! They'll be able to notice grammar mistakes and help you out if something in there doesn't make sense (I had a few mistakes here and there!)

So after all that, I've now paid my £23 for my application...£23?! What am I paying for - a machine to look at my work? What if I don't get in? Do I get that back? That was a surprise to me - I'll already be paying enough if I go to uni, why have I got to pay now for something that I'm not guaranteed to get accepted for! (Just a small rant!)

Anyways, there was my process of UCAS and my view on it all - a wishy washy post, but it felt like time to post something like this around this time! 

​See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

If you follow me on social media (mainly Facebook) you may of seen this image:

Yes it's my crazy mother - but we brought ourselves something to help us with our weekly shop: Trolley Bags. Since the 5p bag charge was introduced in the UK in October, having to ensure that we have reusable bags with us for every shop seemed a bit of a pain. We're frequent on using scan as you shop and gradually as we shop the trolley gets heavy and everything gets jumbled together in different bags - which then makes an even longer trip of getting them out of the car to the house. 

So on one un productive day, scrolling through social media I stumbled upon a video advertising these bags.

At first I thought they were just dividers for your trolley - but nope, they were bags. Excited to see something new on the market that hasn't been seen before (what has this blog even come to at this point - I got excited about bags!) I ordered one and waited for delivery. This took about a week - since they suddenly became popular due to the video that I had just seen 20 minutes previously. Once arrived we did our first shop!

I personally think the design of these bags works really well since you can divide your shopping up into 4 separate sections: orange, green, red and blue. They're all different sizes - larger and lightweight products in the orange and heavy small items (like cans) in the blue. Although this works and there is an official system for each - it seems like there needs to effectively be one more bag for things like biscuits and confectionary! I think whoever buys these will have their own little system to get used to - 3 weeks into having these bags and it seems like we still have no clue which goes where!

I do love the fact that they separate by velcro into four different bags - saves you going to and from the car to the house all the time.

I think they definitely are a good purchase and I hope to see them more common in supermarkets in the near future! Especially for people (such as my dad) who like to stay organised and know where everything is.

If you'd like to buy your own Trolley Bags for yourself then you can find them here: https://packingsorted.co.uk
Or if you'd like to know any more on my own view of these bags - then please leave me a comment!

See you in the next blog post, (I promise it won't always be like this haha!